The Professor was meeting his class of freshers for the first time. From his bag, he pulled out a large jar with a wide mouth. He put rocks, each about 2” in size, into the jar and when they reached the top, he asked the students, “Is the jar full?”. They all agreed that was so.
The Professor now began adding some pebbles to the jar, shaking the jar occasionally. The pebbles settled in the spaces between the rocks. When no more pebbles could be put in, the Professor asked the students, “Is the jar full now?”. Again, they all agreed that was so.
Now the Professor began pouring some fine sand into the jar. The sand entered the interstices among the rocks and pebbles. Finally, no more sand would go in in spite of shaking the jar. Once again, the Professor asked the students, “Is the jar full now?”. They all agreed that was really so.
The Professor then explained, “The jar stands for your life. The rocks are the important things of your life: your parents, spouse, children, larger family, close friends, and also your health and exercise. They are all such things that, if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, house, car, etc. The sand is everything else – mobile phone, social networks, television, and such small stuff.”
“If you put the sand into the jar first, there will be no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. So, right priorities and proper time management are necessary for a good life.”
Background: Different versions of the story can be found in books and the Web. I could not trace the original author of the story. One of the several video versions on YouTube shows Stephen Covey (author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) demonstrating the experiment.
I agree that there are enough lessons about life and, more often than not, we realise them as we grow old and it is too late by then. Very few have the capability to understand life in its wholesome form and the trigger for this is to go alone far from the dictates of family and society, although they are important up to one stage. This has to be backed by solid conviction and passion, as we have been seeing in all the stories that are emerging in ‘inspiring stories’. We have the crowd mentality and often fail to see what is good for us and make choices to regret later. How do we want our youngsters to be is never in thoughts of the so called rulers or governors of this world, and the choice we make for ourselves is a poor imitation of what we should not be. This requires a tremendous change in our attitudes, not as means of escape from one into another but as a means of meaningful livelihood along with nature and all the wonderful things that it can offer. It is only then that we can visualise something different from the normal.